Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke sat down in our studio Tuesday afternoon to talk about two initiatives she has been spearheading: broadband and early childhood education. Today we talk about internet access.
"Internet has become almost a utility and a necessity in this day and age," she said. "We want to make sure that people have reliable high-speed internet so that, you know, if they have to do work, business, health care, whatever it is, I mean, it's accessible and affordable to a lot of people."
Pandemic-era federal subsidies for internet service end this month unless Congress acts to extend funding.
"Congress is still grappling with whether they want to extend, and we're encouraging, working closely with our congressional delegation as well about the importance of continuing this service," Luke said.
And for the long term, we learn more about a plan to place new undersea fiber-optic cables to improve our connectivity.
Google recently announced a $1 billion project to connect more areas of the Pacific region, including Hawaiʻi.
"We are just so excited and so thankful that Google is making this investment to connect Hawaiʻi directly to the continent, directly to Australia, directly to Japan. It is going to make a huge improvement to what people will see," Luke told HPR.
Though Google is connecting Hawaiʻi to the world, inter-island connectivity still needs improvements. That's where Luke's high-speed internet initiative, Connect Kākou, comes in.
"One of the things that our office is doing, working closely with the University of Hawaiʻi, is ensuring that part of the funding that we got from the federal government, we're using that to build redundant lines between the islands, and that is in planning stages as well. And we're hoping that that will be done in the next, you know, basically like five to seven years."
In part two of this interview, Luke talked about leading the Ready Keiki initiative to open more preschools across the islands.
This interview aired on The Conversation on May 8, 2024. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.
